Loretto Health and Rehabilitation Center is among facilities across the state making sure its doctors, nurses, and staff are vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to meet a new state mandate. Loretto Chief Marketing officer Julie Sheedy says they were actually ahead of the game, educating employees and working with them one-on-one over the past few months.
“Really having that personalized approach made the difference whether it was to connect with a medical professional or just to ease their fears and even hold their hand while they were getting their vaccine, they were just nervous. We brought the vaccines to them wherever they were working, whenever they needed it,” she said.
Sheedy said fellow workers even served as cheerleaders, encouraging one another. In the end, she says the combined efforts were a success, with many ultimately deciding to get vaccinated. Sheedy said that since so few are unvaccinated, that they won’t need to tap into governor Hochul’s contingency plans for staffing levels.
“Our numbers are low enough that we feel good about our staffing schedules and have adequate staffing. We’ve brought in some additional staffing to support us and are in good shape today,” said Sheedy.
According to Sheedy, about 97% of staff at their main facility are vaccinated; only 22 declined. Sheedy and the rest of her staff continue to talk to unvaccinated employees and hope they make the safe decision. She says they’re also aggressively recruiting new workers, and training classes are filled.
